Colourful Bosa, Sardinia

The first picture you see in this blog is the first sight I had ever set on the colourful town Bosa, located on the West coast of Sardinia...Driving from the east cost to the west the road offer this amazing panorama view on Bosa. Bosa is the only river side town in the whole of Sardinia. The river is very deeply connected to the tradition and history of the town. It is thanks to the fertility of its soil and its position that Bosa was inhabited since ancient times, the territory is in fact scattered with historical monuments like the Serravalle Castle, which was built by the Malaspina family in the XII century.

A more recent area is Bosa Marina, the extension of the town on the coast. Bosa Marina beach is a long and deep stretch of sand.

The underwater world in Sardinia: fishes and stars

...and after the crustaceans and the nudibranches, today I will present you some charming and some scary fishes:-) Some of them were enjoying being photographed...not the moray eel though!

The sea stars, also know as star fishes, are actually echinoderms and show a wide range of colours.

Sardinian cuisine or "buono mangiare in Sardegna"

Sardinia is not only island of high mountains and wonderful beaches, but also a place with tons of fruit trees and other local yummy products..This entry is dedicated to some specialties of the Sardinian cuisine. As a starter one may always take Sardinian cheese: "pecorino sardo" or "dolce sardo" or "formaggio di capra"...

The Sardinian pasta "malloreddus" (on the picture above) is usually served with meat and tomato sauce, while "risotto marinara" offers the abundance of seafood in rice.

And now...off to the sweets:-))

The "pardulas" are one of the most famous pastry here. There are made with fresh ricotta cheese and orange or lemon peels....The ones on the picture were made by Sabrina, the owner of our B&B in Chia. And last but not least lets enjoy the most famous Sardinian dessert: "seadas" or "sebadas". A dough pancake filled with ricotta cheese filling, grilled and then served warm with some yummy local honey on the top....

The underwater world in Sardinia: nudibranches

A nudibranch is a soft-bodied mollusk (= invertebrate animal) which leaves their shell after their larval stage. They are famous and loved for their often extraordinary colors and striking forms. There are more than 3,000 described species of nudibranches. The word "nudibranch" comes from the Latin nudus, naked, and the Greek brankhia, gills.

While in Sardinia we were told that nudibranches in the Mediterranean sea love cold water and when the summer start they are more rarely sighed, but we were still lucky enough to discover and see different ones:-) The biggest one is the so called in Italian "vaccheta di mare" (the white with the balk dots, literally the "sea cow"). It can reach up to 10 cm.

Most of the them are however really tiny, from 0,5 to 2-3cm. The bright and impressive colours are signal for predators that the soft body contains venom. This is also their only protection...

Orgosolo, the mural paintings village of Sardinia

The tiny an difficult to reach village Orgosolo is located in the mountainious middle of Sardinia. Nowadays it is famous for its over 120 mural paintings /murales, which depicts social, political and cultural problems from the last and current centuries...

The first of all murales here was painted in 1968...Sometimes its about events in Sardinia, sometimes its about European or worldwide troubles. The walls were the scene for different artists through the years to show their opinions and thoughts!

The underwater world in Sardinia: crustaceans

Underwater one may meet several different species: not only fishes, but also crustaceans (such as individuals from the crabs and lobsters), cephalopods (an example are the octopuses from my previous blog entry) and or the tiny and colourful nudibranches, Today I will show you some impressively beautiful crustaceans. In my selection you may find the hermit crab, the slipper lobster, the crayfish..

The slipper lobster (second picture) is not a real lobster, despite its name. It is however eatable. some species in Australia are called "bug". This kind has tons of different names: shovel-nosed lobster or spanish lobster, mudbug or sandbug, sometimes even flathead or bulldozer lobster:-)) The one we met had edges of its body coloured in purple...

Above is Nico holding the empty houses of two sea urchins... A Specialty in some restaurants here is "spagetthi ai ricci di mare" (pasta with sea urchin). Of course not only the people but also other sea inhabitants love them.

Some funny info about the hermit crab (first and last picture) : As the hermit crab grows in size, it has to find a larger shell and abandon the previous one. This habit of living in a second hand shell gives rise to the popular name "hermit crab", by analogy to a hermit who lives alone.

Diving with "polpi"/octopuses next to Tavolara, Sardinia

The emerald sea around the three islands Tavolara, Molara and Molaretto (in the North of Sardinia) is an amazing nature reserve, called "Tavolara and Capo Coda Cavallo Marine Park". Laura, our friendly diving master from Sardinia, had this very funny dry suit, with the ears on the head...

The underwater world in the park is very beautiful. During only one day we met/ saw 7 octopuses! Some of them were sleeping in their holes. One could see just their eyes and the breathing opening next to the eyes. One "polpo" was not afraid at all and made a big show by stretching slowly all his 8 tentacles.

Chia beach in Sardinia/ la spiaggia Chia della Sardegna

When the summer comes, somehow automatically one start to thinks of sea, beach and refreshing...Today I would like to take you to one of my favourite beaches in Europe: Chia. Le Spiaggie di Chia are located around 50 km from Cagliari, the capital of Sardinia and offer several
(bigger and smaller) bays with fine, white sand and turquoise blue-green clear water.

Have a look for yourself and get refreshed:-))Snorkelling there is a great experience too...

About Nora, the first Sardinian city....

On a small peninsula, next to the village Pula, around 60 km from Cagliari one can visit the remains of the Nora, which is believed to have been the first Sardinian city. It has been settled by the ancient Nuraghi people, later the Phoenicians and the Romans lived here.

The different civilisations left beautiful mosaics (partly restored), impressive roads (still in perfect shape nowadays), glass and ceramics tableware (to be admired at the museum in Pula)..

Because the southern part of Sardinia is sinking into the Mediterranean Sea, a substantial part of the former town is now under the sea and can be visited by snorkeling. On the right side of the entrance there is the Pula laguna with a very nicely made aquarium and a turtle hospital. When we visited there were 5 patients in there. 

A stroll through Cagliari....

The capital of Sardinia impresses its visitors with majestetic stone buildings and charmed them with its huge palm trees as well as with its beauty. This could have been somewhere in Paris, I started thinking aloud while looking at the lovely ornaments at one old house in the centre. The center of Cagliari is called Castello and it was build on a top of a hill.

Nowadays the city has 170 000 inhabitants and offers next to narrow shopping streets, also a Botanic garden, old churches and a huge harbour.